Honesty Pays -- Most Of The Time

A Hartford Officer's Startling Admissions Cost Him One Job, Probably Two

October 01, 2002|By MATT BURGARD; Courant Staff Writer

When Hartford police Officer Gregory DePietro sat down for a job interview in West Hartford last year, he was told to be honest about his background.

The 31-year-old DePietro, a six-year veteran of the Hartford force, did not disappoint.

When asked if he ever kept confiscated evidence for his own use, DePietro said yes. When asked if he ever falsified a police report, he said yes. Sleeping on the job, stealing police property, fixing parking tickets, destroying drugs taken as evidence and letting the suspects go free -- DePietro admitted to all of them.

By the time he was done unburdening his soul to a stunned West Hartford police detective, DePietro had done more than ruin any chance he had of joining the West Hartford force.

DePietro's admissions of on-the-job violations in Hartford spurred an exhaustive internal-affairs investigation in Hartford that is wrapping up and could cost him his job.

A copy of the internal-affairs investigation, obtained by The Courant, reveals an officer who was so nervous about taking a polygraph test as part of the job interview that he ended up admitting to more than 20 department violations.

In the process, DePietro implicated more than a dozen of his colleagues by describing an ``old school'' department that routinely discards drugs and other evidence and confiscates watches, guns and other items seized from criminals or found on the job.

DePietro, who remains on the job in Hartford in an administrative post, will likely lose his job when the investigation concludes with a disciplinary hearing later this year, sources said. But Hartford police officials still must determine whether DePietro's allegations point to one problem officer or an atmosphere throughout the department in which officers are encouraged to cut corners.

Either way, investigators remain stunned that DePietro made the admissions during a job interview that turned into a confessional.

As one attorney told DePietro during the internal-affairs questioning: ``You were spilling your guts, beyond what was probably necessary.''

DePietro could not be reached for comment Monday night. He is being represented by police union attorney Frank Szilagyi, who declined to comment Monday.

Hartford police spokeswoman Sgt. Maura Hammick said she could not comment on the case because it was being referred for a disciplinary hearing. West Hartford Police Chief James Strillacci also declined to comment.

Hartford State's Attorney James Thomas said he was familiar with the DePietro investigation but had not been approached by Hartford police about pursuing criminal charges. A memo included in the internal-affairs report indicates that Hartford police believe criminal charges against DePietro would be difficult to pursue. The report says investigators are more interested in pursuing internal discipline.

According to a summary provided by a West Hartford detective, the job interview for an officer's post took place about a week before Christmas last year. DePietro showed up neatly dressed but obviously nervous, the summary says.

During a videotaped interview, done to check DePietro's honesty during a polygraph test that would follow, DePietro said he was ``coerced'' by veteran Hartford officers to ``stretch the truth'' in his reports and ``peer pressure'' to keep items found on the job.

DePietro was never given the polygraph test because the interview had already ended his chances of employment, the report says.

Later, during the Hartford police investigation, DePietro explained that he admitted to the violations because he was nervous about being caught lying during the polygraph, the report says.

``I'm a very sensitive person,'' DePietro said, according to the report. ``I was trying to be so specific for this interview because of the fact that I was going to be wired to a lie-detector machine.''

He also had to answer a list of more than 130 yes-or-no questions covering all aspects of his personal and professional history. DePietro answered ``yes'' to more than 55 of them, including admissions that he twice stole knives he had seized and had possessed heroin, morphine or codeine.

West Hartford police officials notified Hartford police officials, who launched the internal investigation to learn more about DePietro's transgressions.

In particular, internal-affairs investigators Sgt. John Horvath and Sgt. Neville Brooks were eager to find out about a shotgun that DePietro said had been improperly confiscated by one of his partners on patrol.

DePietro told his West Hartford interviewers that he was troubled by his partner's decision to steal the shotgun after it was found in an abandoned vehicle, the report says. The partner denied the allegation in a subsequent interview with internal affairs.

DePietro also was questioned about an incident on New Year's Eve in 1999 in which he admitted to allowing a package of suspected crack cocaine to be flushed down a police department toilet and then allowing three suspects to go free, the report says.